Abstract
Context
Integrative mitigation and adaptation strategies are needed to counter climate change. Indicators can be valuable that focus on the specific relevance of cities’ socioeconomic and spatial properties. While previous analyses have identified socioeconomic influences on urban greenhouse gas emissions, information about the role of spatial urban structures and land use and land cover patterns is sparse.
Objective
This study advances the use of spatial metrics for analyzing the linkages between the spatial properties of a city and its greenhouse gas emissions.
Methods
The relationship between nine types of spatial structure, four land use and land cover-based indicators, and the emissions of 52 European cities is investigated by spatially and statistically analyzing high resolution data from European Union’s “Urban Atlas”.
Results
Spatial determinants of urban greenhouse gas emissions are identified, indicating a strong connection between urban sprawl and increasing emissions. In particular, high amounts of sparsity in the urban fabric within large distances to the city center relate to increased per capita emissions. Thus, a 10 % reduction of very low density urban fabrics is correlated with 9 % fewer emissions per capita. In contrast, high amounts of fragmented, dense urban patches relate with lower emissions.
Conclusions
This study links urban spatial properties and land use and land cover compositions to greenhouse gas emissions and advances the understanding of urban sprawl. Future research needs to combine knowledge about socioeconomic drivers with information about the identified spatial influences of urban greenhouse gas emissions to help cities realize their climate change mitigation potential.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ala-Mantila S, Heinonen J, Junnila S (2014) Relationship between urbanization, direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, and expenditures: a multivariate analysis. Ecol Econ 104:129–139. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2014.04.019
Antrop M (2004) Landscape change and the urbanization process in Europe. Landsc Urban Plan 67:9–26
Baur AH, Thess M, Kleinschmit B, Creutzig F (2013) Urban climate change mitigation in Europe: looking at and beyond the role of population density. J Urban Plan Dev. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)UP.1943-5444.0000165
Bergeron O, Strachan IB (2011) CO2 sources and sinks in urban and suburban areas of a northern mid-latitude city. Atmos Environ 45:1564–1573. doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2010.12.043
Bhatia P, Ranganathan J (2004) The greenhouse gas protocol: a corporate accounting and reporting standard. WRI; WBSCD, Washington
CAPCOA (2010) Quantifying greenhouse gas mitigation measures
C40 Cities (2012) Global climate community releases city-scale emissions accounting standard for public comment. In: C40 Blog. http://www.c40.org/blog_posts/global-climate-community-releases-city-scale-emissions-accounting-standard-for-public-comment. Accessed 27 Sep 2014
Coutts A, Beringer J, Tapper N (2010) Changing urban climate and CO2 emissions: implications for the development of policies for sustainable cities. Urban Policy Res 28:27–47. doi:10.1080/08111140903437716
Creutzig F, Mühlhoff R, Römer J (2012) Decarbonizing urban transport in European cities: four cases show possibly high co-benefits. Environ Res Lett 7:044042. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/7/4/044042
Deng F, Huang Y (2004) Uneven land reform and urban sprawl in China: the case of Beijing. Prog Plan 61:211–236. doi:10.1016/j.progress.2003.10.004
Druckman A, Jackson T (2009) The carbon footprint of UK households 1990–2004: a socio-economically disaggregated, quasi-multi-regional input–output model. Ecol Econ 68:2066–2077. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2009.01.013
ECOSPEED AG (2012) ECORegion—Die Lösung für effiziente Energie- und Treibhausgasbilanzierung für Städte und Gemeinden. In: ECOSPEED—Softw. Für Klimaschutz. http://www.ecospeed.ch/de/psc3_cenr20.html. Accessed 4 Jul 2012
El Nasser H, Overberg P (2001) A comprehensive look at sprawl in America. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/sprawl/main.htm. Accessed 31 Jan 2014
ESRI (2012) ArcGIS for desktop 10.1. Environmental Systems Resource Institute (ESRI), Redlands
European Commission (2007) State of European cities report: adding value to the European
European Commission, Goulet R (2011) A European urban atlas: mapping land use in the 27 capital cities. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg
European Environment Agency (1995) CORINE land cover. http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/COR0-landcover. Accessed 29 Nov 2013
European Environment Agency (2006) Urban sprawl in Europe—the ignored challenge. Denmark, Copenhagen
European Environment Agency (2010) Urban environment—SOER 2010 thematic assessment
European Environment Agency (2012) Urban adaptation to climate change
European Environment Agency, Meirich S (2011) Mapping guide for a European Urban Atlas. http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/urban-atlas/mapping-guide. Accessed 14 Nov 2013
Eurostat (2011) Data explorer. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/statistics/search_database. Accessed 20 Jul 2012
Ewing RH, Bartholomew K, Winkelman S, Walters J, Chen D (2007) Growing cooler: the evidence on urban development and climate change. Urban Land Institut, Washington
Feng L, Li H (2012) Spatial pattern analysis of urban sprawl: case study of Jiangning, Nanjing, China. J Urban Plan Dev 138:263–269. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)UP.1943-5444.0000119
Guariguata MR, Cornelius JP, Locatelli B, Forner C, Sánchez-Azofeifa GA (2008) Mitigation needs adaptation: tropical forestry and climate change. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change 13:793–808. doi:10.1007/s11027-007-9141-2
Halsnæs K, Verhagen J (2007) Development based climate change adaptation and mitigation—conceptual issues and lessons learned in studies in developing countries. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change 12:665–684. doi:10.1007/s11027-007-9093-6
Hartshorn TA (1992) Interpreting the city: an urban geography. Wiley, London
Heinonen J, Kyrö R, Junnila S (2011) Dense downtown living more carbon intense due to higher consumption: a case study of Helsinki. Environ Res Lett 6:034034. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/6/3/034034
Herold M, Hemphill J, Dietzel C, Clarke KC (2005) Remote sensing derived mapping to support urban growth theory. In: 3rd International symposium on remote sensing. Data fusion urban areas URBAN 2005 5th International symposium on remote sensing of urban areas (URS 2005)
Hoornweg D, Sugar L, Trejos Gomez CL (2011) Cities and greenhouse gas emissions: moving forward. Environ Urban 23:207–227. doi:10.1177/0956247810392270
Huang J, Lu X, Sellers J (2007) A global comparative analysis of urban form: applying spatial metrics and remote sensing. Landsc Urban Plan 82:184–197. doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2007.02.010
IPCC (2014) Summary for policymakers. In: Field CB, Barros VR, Dokken DJ, Mach KJ, Mastrandrea MD, Bilir TE, Chatterjee M, Ebi KL, Estrada YO, Genova RC, Girma B, Kissel ES, Levy AN, MacCracken S, Mastrandrea PR, Mastrandrea PR, White LL (eds) Climate change 2014: impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Part A: global and sectoral aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 1–32
Jackson T, Papathanasopoulou E (2008) Luxury or “lock-in”? An exploration of unsustainable consumption in the UK: 1968 to 2000. Ecol Econ 68:80–95. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2008.01.026
Jenerette GD, Harlan SL, Brazel A, Jones N, Larsen L, Stefanov WL (2007) Regional relationships between surface temperature, vegetation, and human settlement in a rapidly urbanizing ecosystem. Landscape Ecol 22:353–365. doi:10.1007/s10980-006-9032-z
Kennedy C, Steinberger J, Gasson B, Hansen Y, Hillman T, Havranek M, Pataki D, Phdungsilp A, Ramaswami A, Mendez GV (2009) Greenhouse gas emissions from global cities. Environ Sci Technol 43:7297–7302. doi:10.1021/es900213p
Kumar P (2010) The economics of ecosystems and biodiversity: ecological and economic foundations. UNEP/Earthprint, London
Lauf S, Hasse D, Kleinschmit B (2014) Linkages between ecosystem services provisioning, urban growth and shrinkage—a modeling approach assessing ecosystem service trade-offs. Ecol, Indic
Liao C-H, Chang C-L, Su C-Y, Chiueh P-T (2013) Correlation between land-use change and greenhouse gas emissions in urban areas. Int J Environ Sci Technol 10:1275–1286. doi:10.1007/s13762-012-0155-2
Lovell ST, Taylor JR (2013) Supplying urban ecosystem services through multifunctional green infrastructure in the United States. Landscape Ecol 28:1447–1463. doi:10.1007/s10980-013-9912-y
Maciag M (2014) Cities consider taxing commuters to drive up revenue. http://www.governing.com/news/headlines/gov-more-cities-could-tax-nonresident-workers-reverse-commuters.html. Accessed 22 Oct 2014
Makido Y, Dhakal S, Yamagata Y (2012) Relationship between urban form and CO2 emissions: evidence from fifty Japanese cities. Urban Clim 2:55–67. doi:10.1016/j.uclim.2012.10.006
Newman PWG, Kenworthy JR (1989) Gasoline consumption and cities—a comparison of U.S. cities with a global survey. J Am Plan Assoc 55:24–37
Newman PWG, Kenworthy JR (2006) Urban design to reduce automobile dependence. Opolis 2:35–52
Norman J, MacLean HL, Kennedy CA (2006) Comparing high and low residential density: life-cycle analysis of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. J Urban Plan Dev 132:10–21
Petterson D (2010) Bounding Containers; ArcGIS Resource Center. http://resources.arcgis.com/de/gallery/file/geoprocessing/details?entryID=3D230972-1422-2418-34A5-2F3FFF97C238. Accessed 22 Nov 2013
R Development Core Team (2012) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna
Rempel RS, Kaukinen D, Carr AP (2012) Patch Analyst and Patch Grid. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. Centre for Northern Forest Ecosystem Research, Thunder Bay
Rickwood P, Glazebrook G, Searle G (2008) Urban structure and energy—a review. Urban Policy Res 26:57–81. doi:10.1080/08111140701629886
Rosenberg M (2014) CBD: the CBD or Central business district is the core of the city. In: About. http://geography.about.com/od/urbaneconomicgeography/a/cbd.htm. Accessed 15 Oct 2014
RWI, Difu, NEA, PRAC (2010) Second State of European Cities Report. 191
Schneider A, Woodcock CE (2008) Compact, dispersed, fragmented, extensive? A comparison of urban growth in twenty-five global cities using remotely sensed data, pattern metrics and census information. Urban Stud 45:659–692. doi:10.1177/0042098007087340
Schwarz N (2010) Urban form revisited-Selecting indicators for characterising European cities. Landsc Urban Plan 96:29–47. doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2010.01.007
SIRS (2011) Urban Atlas: delivery of land use/cover maps of major European urban agglomerations—Final report. 96
Spiekermann K (1997) Berufspendler—Trennung von Wohnort und Arbeitsort. In: Institut für Länderkunde (ed) Atlas Bundesrepublik Deutschland—Pilotband. IFL, Leipzig, pp 92–93
Strohbach MW, Haase D (2012) Above-ground carbon storage by urban trees in Leipzig, Germany: analysis of patterns in a European city. Landsc Urban Plan 104:95–104. doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2011.10.001
Strohbach MW, Arnold E, Haase D (2012) The carbon footprint of urban green space—a life cycle approach. Landsc Urban Plan 104:220–229. doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2011.10.013
Taubenböck H, Klotz M, Wurm M, Schmieder J, Wagner B, Wooster M, Esch T, Dech S (2013) Delineation of central business districts in mega city regions using remotely sensed data. Remote Sens Environ 136:386–401. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2013.05.019
The World Bank Group (2014) Urban population. In: Data Urban Popul. Total. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS/countries?display=graph. Accessed 26 Sep 2014
UNFCCC United NF on CC (2007) GHG inventories. http://unfccc.int/resource/cd_roms/na1/ghg_inventories/index.htm. Accessed 27 Sep 2014
United Nations Human Settlement Programme (2011) Cities and climate change. Earthscan, Washington
Viegas CV, Saldanha DL, Bond A, Ribeiro JLD, Selig PM (2013) Urban land planning: the role of a Master Plan in influencing local temperatures. Cities 35:1–13
Wang F, Chen C, Xiu C, Zhang P (2014) Location analysis of retail stores in Changchun, China: a street centrality perspective. Cities 41(Part A):54–63. doi:10.1016/j.cities.2014.05.005
Weber N, Haase D, Franck U (2014) Zooming into temperature conditions in the city of Leipzig: How do urban built and green structures influence earth surface temperatures in the city? Sci Total Environ 496:289–298. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.06.144
Zhang L, Yang Z, Liang J, Cai Y (2010) Spatial variation and distribution of urban energy consumptions from cities in China. Energies 4:26–38. doi:10.3390/en4010026
Zhao C, Fu G, Liu X, Fu F (2011) Urban planning indicators, morphology and climate indicators: a case study for a north-south transect of Beijing, China. Build Environ 46:1174–1183. doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2010.12.009
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Baur, A.H., Förster, M. & Kleinschmit, B. The spatial dimension of urban greenhouse gas emissions: analyzing the influence of spatial structures and LULC patterns in European cities. Landscape Ecol 30, 1195–1205 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-015-0169-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-015-0169-5